LAURA ROBSON urged Virginia Wade not to get carried away after restoring some much-needed national pride with a stunning victory over 10th seed Maria Kirilenko yesterday.

The teenager’s emphatic 6-3 6-4 success on Court One helped lift the gloom that has descended on the British tennis scene over the past 48 hours.

And the result also prompted former women’s champion Wade to predict Robson could be a major contender here at SW19 over the next fortnight.

However, the 19-year-old, the only other British survivor apart from Andy Murray, claimed she can’t even afford to look beyond her second round clash with Colombian qualifier Mariana Duque-Marino.

She said: “Virginia always gets quite excited, doesn’t she?

“I’d just love to win a couple more matches although I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

“I think the next one is going to be really difficult so I’m just focusing on that.

“I’m just going to take it match by match and try to stay focused.

“This was a really big result for me because I have only made the second round once before at Wimbledon.”

Robson had arguably the toughest draw of all the Brits but came through with flying colours against Russian star Kirilenko who reached the quarter-finals here 12 months ago.

Defeat for the youngster would have led to the joint worst performance by homegrown players in the tournament’s 127-year history. But her convincing win ensured Murray would not by Britain’s sole flagbearer in the second round.

Robson’s first-class performance was, with the exception of the Scot, in complete contrast to her fellow countrymen and women.